XCyton, L V Prasad tie up to develop DNA chips for eye diseases

EHM News Bureau - Bangalore

The L V Prasad Eye Institute of Hyderabad plans to develop reusable DNA chips for inherited eye diseases in collaboration with the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB), one of the constituent national labs of the CSIR and the Bangalore-based XCyton Diagnostics. The CSIR funded Rs two-crore project was announced by Prof Balasubramanian, Director of Research of L V Prasad Eye Institute while making a presentation on Showcasing Institutional R&D at Bangalore Bio 2003 held recently.

Speaking to Express Healthcare Management, Prof Balasubramanian said, ‘‘Initially we will try and isolate well-known mutations that cause inherited eye diseases and concentrate on about 25-30 genes. At the moment we are only looking at cataract and glaucoma diseases. We already have a library of about 45-50 mutations collected from the analysis conducted in Hyderabad, Madurai and Chennai which is good to start with. The Eye Institute in the next stage will look at infectious eye diseases. Even here we have wealth of information which is collected by people in the same places.’’

The project will obtain data from across the country through a consortium of 12 institutions in the country which will analyse 100 to 200 patients for genes and mutations. The centres include IICB in Calcutta, AIIMS in Delhi, The Guru Nana Dev University in Punjab, Leeladevi Cataract Centre in Ahmedabad, Sankar Netralaya in Chennai, Arvind Eye Hosptial System in Madurai, Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore, L V Prasad in Hyderabad and Centre for Human Genetics in Bangalore.

CCMB will work towards deriving specific sequences and XCyton Diagnostics will provide the technology to make the reusable gene chip. The project is expected to be complete in the next two years. The L V Prasad Eye Institute also plans to set up eye institutes in 23 districts of Andhra Pradesh soon. It has been doing remarkable work in cataract, corneal disorders, glucoma, retinal disorder, oral infections and microbiology and also conducts research on adult stem cells.

The Institute has joined hands with Lensel Optics in Pune and ICP in Baroda for a two year project of about Rs 50 lakh to develop specific aids for low vision.